Man pleads not guilty to charge in daughter's shooting death

CLEVELAND - A man charged with fatally shooting his daughter in the head at their suburban home "planned out" the killing, an assistant prosecutor said in court on Wednesday.

The man, 63-year-old Jamal Mansour, pleaded not guilty through his attorney to aggravated murder, murder and felonious assault charges in the shooting death last month of 27-year-old Tahani Mansour, the youngest of his six children.

Mansour has admitted killing his daughter. He told police after the Sept. 27 slaying that he was angry when he fired three shots into her head during an argument at the family's Rocky River home. He told a judge later that day the shooting was an accident.

A Cuyahoga County judge on Wednesday set Mansour's bond at $1 million over the objections of county assistant prosecutor Margaret Troia, who said telephone calls made by Mansour from jail and translated from Arabic indicated he might have plans to flee the country.

According to the translation, Mansour, who was born in Jordan and moved to the U.S. in 1978, told someone "I just need to get out of here" so he could "take the same road," Troia said.

A Rocky River city prosecutor said last week that Mansour could be a flight risk and that he could afford to pay a $1 million bond. A Municipal Court judge set his bond at $4.5 million.

The county judge assigned to the case has ordered Mansour jailed until a bond hearing, scheduled for next week.

Authorities have said Mansour returned to the U.S. from a trip from Jerusalem shortly before he killed his daughter. Mansour owns multiple properties in the U.S. and overseas, Troia said.

Mansour attorney Angelo Lonardo said in court Wednesday that his client has health issues that require him to take more than a dozen medications, including insulin for diabetes, and that family members had been exploring whether to get him help for mental issues. Lonardo said Mansour and his wife have been married for 41 years and raised their children as "progressive Muslims."

Lonardo said Mansour paid for college educations for his four daughters, including Tahani Mansour, who he said was "the love of his life."

Tahani Mansour received a doctor of pharmacy degree in 2013 and had recently been hired as a clinical pharmacist at two hospitals in the Cleveland Clinic medical system. A classmate and friend from the pharmacy program at Northeast Ohio Medical University, Philip King, said she had expressed fears about her father but never provided details.

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